Differences for printer driver for Windows XP 64-bit release and beta version

[kumashish]

Our printer driver installation utility seemed to work till the 64-bit
XP Beta version. Our setup wizard has always worked thinking that the
OS known driver files would be lying in <root drive>\IA64 path. Now, In
the final version of 64-bit XP service pack 1, It seems that the
driver.cab file is lying in I386 directory. I have few questions
related to it and hope someone will help me out here.
1. Is the driver.cab file destination would be based on whether the
system is a x86 based system or amd64 based one ?
2. Has the destination files of drivers also changed in the release ?
3. I tried changing the source path to where my driver.cab is residing
currently on my machine, Now its looking for sp2.cb. My system doesn't
have a sp2.cab but it has a sp1.cab (its service pack 1). Can someone
explain what could be the reason here.

Thanks a lot,
Ashish

 

[Tom Ferguson]

I cannot comment on much you ask except to say that:

the driver 32.cab and driver.cab files are in C::\windows\Driver
Cache\i386 and C:\Windows\Driver Cache\amd64 respectively;

there is no sp2.cab file for Windows 64 bit (It is released with what
are regarded as equivalent to Windows XP 32 bit SP2-level files as part
of the initial release.);

Other drivers might be present in system, system64, or systemWOW32
directories.

Windows XP 64 bit and Server 2003 64 bit will not use 32-bit printer
drivers.

Note: These comments represent the best of my present understanding.
That understanding might be incomplete or erroneous.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User


: Our printer driver installation utility seemed to work till the 64-bit
: XP Beta version. Our setup wizard has always worked thinking that the
: OS known driver files would be lying in <root drive>\IA64 path. Now,
In
: the final version of 64-bit XP service pack 1, It seems that the
: driver.cab file is lying in I386 directory. I have few questions
: related to it and hope someone will help me out here.
: 1. Is the driver.cab file destination would be based on whether the
: system is a x86 based system or amd64 based one ?
: 2. Has the destination files of drivers also changed in the release ?
: 3. I tried changing the source path to where my driver.cab is residing
: currently on my machine, Now its looking for sp2.cb. My system doesn't
: have a sp2.cab but it has a sp1.cab (its service pack 1). Can someone
: explain what could be the reason here.
:
: Thanks a lot,
: Ashish
:

 

[Alan Morris]

The driver cab in i386 are for 32bit drivers. These are not printer
drivers. Uncab the file if you want to see what types of drivers are
included in this file.

The spooler will only load 64bit drivers.

Question 1
Not sure what you are asking.

Q2
Yes. \windows\driver cache\amd64 is the path to the x64 driver.cab file

Q3
do not use ntprint.inf from XP. X64 requires decorated infs. Check
http://www.msdn.com

 

[kumashish]

Tom,
Thanks a lot for your reply ?
One more basic question.
I have driver.cab and NTPRINT.INF files on 3 places in my system, why
they should be at so many places?
Are the contents of driver.cab in c:\I386 and C:\Windows\Driver
Cache\amd64 same ?

I am running Windows XP 64-bit SP1 on xeon.

Thanks,
Ashish

 

[Tom Ferguson]

I can possibly account for two of the three locations: one is the
copy-in-use. Another is a backup. The system keeps copies of all
essential files so it can replace any that are overwritten by an errant
install.

No. contents will differ. There might be a MSKB article or other public
resource on it but I don not have the reference at hand.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User


: Tom,
: Thanks a lot for your reply ?
: One more basic question.
: I have driver.cab and NTPRINT.INF files on 3 places in my system, why
: they should be at so many places?
: Are the contents of driver.cab in c:\I386 and C:\Windows\Driver
: Cache\amd64 same ?
:
: I am running Windows XP 64-bit SP1 on xeon.
:
: Thanks,
: Ashish
:

 

[kumashish]

Tom,
thanks for your help. But just found out that and it seems files lying
in \I386 directory won't be accepted by the Addprinter. It returns me
"NOT A VALID IMAGE" kind of error. i guess, the Add printer wizard
would only use C:\Windows\Driver
Cache\amd64\driver.cab for its installation purpose.
If you can point me out to any MSKB, it will be of greta help. I tried
googling but couldn't find something which can help me

Thanks a lot,
Ashish

 

[kumashish]

HI Alan,
Thanks for your help.

Question 1 - i read somewhere as the machines and drivers have been
identified as x86 and amd64 ones. So when looking for cab files, do i
ever need to worry about this, in my code for these parameters.

3. If i dont use ntprint.inf, what should i use. I have an UI which
repeats the steps done by AddPrinter Wizard.

Thanks,
Ashish

 

[Alan Morris]

the spooler recognizes x64 print drivers as "Windows x64", x86 drivers are
"Windows NT x86"

Use your own inf file but add the proper decorations. If you need all the
devices listed in ntprint.inf you will need to use correct OS version of the
inf. Just grab ntprint.inf from a x64 system and compare it to ntprintinf
from an x86 system.